A call to arms for girls

An article in the Irish Times discusses Steve Biddulph's book "Raising Girls."

‘Fourteen is the new 18,” is what parenting educator and author Steve Biddulph hears all the time from mothers talking about their daughters.

“That’s in terms of the pressures, decisions and concerns, and the way they have migrated downwards into the childhood years,” he explains. “So eight-year-olds worry about their weight, and 13-year-olds worry about whether they are ‘hot’ enough.”

A third wave of feminism is needed to respond to the plight of young females today, says Biddulph, whose Raising Girls was published in 2013 as a “call to arms”. Both in the West and in the developing world, “it’s all about the girls now”.

“For example, the rape laws in the Emirates states, the child-marriage situation and sex slavery in Cambodia are all part of the treatment of girls as commodities. If our daughters know their struggles – worrying about weight, diet, being misused sexually, bullying and so on – are part of the same struggle, they will feel more powerful and less self-focused. More angry, instead of anxious,” he suggests. 

Click here to read the article.